DeKalb Times

City of Genoa City Council met Aug. 16.

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

Mayor Brust called the meeting of the City Council to order at 7:01pm followed by roll call. Alderman Wesner, Pulley, Freund, Stage, Braheny, Hughes and Roca were present. Alderman Winter was absent. Quorum present.

Mayor Brust led the pledge of allegiance.

GUEST SPEAKERS – None

Motion made by Alderman Braheny to accept the minutes from the August 2, 2023, City Council meeting, seconded by Alderman Freund. Voice vote was taken, all voted yes. Motion carried.

Motion made by Alderman Wesner to approve payment of the accounts payable for August 15, 2023, seconded by Alderman Stage. No further discussion. Alderman Wesner, Pulley, Freund, Stage, Braheny, Hughes and Roca voted yes. Motion carried.

ITEMS FROM INDIVIDUALS IN ATTENDANCE – None

OLD BUSINESS – None

FUTURE ITEMS FOR DISCUSSION – None

NEW BUSINESS:

RECOGNITION OF HOWARD LYLE FOR 40 YEARS OF SERVICE TO THE CITY OF GENOA

Mayor Brust read Howard Lyle, who has served the city in multiple facets over the last 40 years, a proclamation in recognition of his continuous service to the city of Genoa. The city council and all attendees supported Lyle with a standing round of applause.

PRESENTATION OF THE BUSINESS MAP AT THE RIVER RUN DISC GOLF COURSE

City Administrator Alyssa Seguss along with Public Works Director Janice Melton presented the council with the business map that is now located at the River Run Disc Golf Course. The map was created by Public Works and the Chamber of Commerce to highlight the businesses that Genoa holds.

PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION ON MICROSURFACING

Janice Melton opened a discussion on microsurfacing to extend the life of existing roads within the city. Melton has been in communication with the Sycamore Public Works department and presented a video that showed the process and outcome of microsurfacing. She explained that it is a fraction of the cost of asphalt overlay and can extend a road’s life by ten years. Moving forward, it is something that Public Works will be looking further into and potentially utilizing within the Willow Glen subdivision.

APPROVE THE 2024 CITY HALL CLOSINGS LIST

Alderman Pulley made a motion to approve the 2024 City Hall closings list, seconded by Alderman Stage. No further discussion. Alderman Wesner, Pulley, Freund, Stage, Braheny, Hughes and Roca voted yes. Motion carried.

APPROVE THE 2024 ANNUAL MEETINGS CALENDAR

Alderman Hughes made a motion to approve the 2024 Annual Meetings calendar, seconded by Alderman Stage. There was discussion regarding the June meetings since they will be on the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of the month due to holidays. No further discussion. Alderman Wesner, Pulley, Freund, Stage, Braheny, Hughes and Roca voted yes. Motion carried.

UPDATE ON THE 2023 HARVEST FESTIVAL

Alderman Pulley presented the council with an update on the 2023 Harvest Festival including a map of what will be on Main Street. More details will be available soon as they are still awaiting responses from some vendors.

APPROVE THE PURCHASE OF A BOBCAT SKIDSTEER S86 FROM C.S.R. BOBCAT INC., NOT TO EXCEED $56,406

Alderman Stage made a motion to approve the purchase a Bobcat skid steer, seconded by Alderman Braheny. No further discussion. Alderman Wesner, Pulley, Freund, Stage, Braheny, Hughes and Roca voted yes. Motion carried.

APPROVE A RESOLUTION RELEASING A MORTGAGE FOR LOT 77 IN THE RIVERBEND SUBDIVISION IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE RIVERBEND ADDITION TO GENOA DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT

Alderman Wesner made a motion to approve of the resolution releasing the mortgage for lot 77 in Riverbend, seconded by Alderman Braheny. There was a brief discussion on where the lot is located within Riverbend. No further discussion. Alderman Wesner, Pulley, Freund, Stage, Braheny, Hughes and Roca voted yes. Motion carried.

DISCUSSION REGARDING THE CITY OF GENOA’S SAFE ROUTES TO SCHOOL GRANT APPLICATION

City Administrator Alyssa Seguss presented the council with a map that displayed the sidewalks to be included within the grant application. Mayor Brust also announced that the school district has seen the plans and is more than happy to aid with sending out surveys to their students and parents to include within the application. Alderman Pulley explained that he is extremely supportive of the application as the community he has lived in over the last twelve years has gotten demographically younger and there are many kids ages 5-7 that are forced to walk down the street due to the lack of sidewalks. There was also some discussion on whether the city would have to purchase the land to place these sidewalks on, but Seguss explained that the city already owns the land, there were just never sidewalks built in some areas. Additionally, Alderman Stage stated that his son walks to school as well and is fully supportive of there being a safer way for kids to do so.

APPROVE A RESOLUTION SUPPORTING THE CITY OF GENOA’S SRTS GRANT APPLICATION FOR THE GENOA SRTS 2023 PROJECT

Alderman Wesner made a motion to approve of the resolution supporting the SRTS grant application, seconded by Alderman Pulley. No further discussion. Alderman Wesner, Pulley, Freund, Stage, Braheny, Hughes and Roca voted yes. Motion carried.

APPROVE A TREASURY MANAGEMENT SERVICES AGREEMENT WITH HEARTLAND BANK AND TRUST

Motion made by Alderman Stage to approve of the agreement with Heartland Bank and Trust, seconded by Alderman Hughes. No further discussion. Alderman Wesner, Pulley, Freund, Stage, Braheny, Hughes and Roca voted yes. Motion carried.

DEPARTMENT REPORTS:

FINANCE

Finance Director Jan Tures explained that the agreement made with Heartland Bank and Trust is the result of a data breach within a local bank. Fortunately, nothing has come of the breach but there are several new accounts being created and extra security precautions being put in place to further protect the city’s financial information moving forward.

PUBLIC WORKS

Public Works Director Janice Melton informed the council that the tree board met on August 8th and because it is made up of all new members, they are working on a new mission statement. Katie Lang, employee of public works and member of the tree board is working with Alyssa Seguss on ordinance verbiage to make sure they are in line with what the grant requires. Water meters are continuing to be replaced since many went in between 2012-2014 and therefore are beginning to fail. The NPDES permit was also sent out last week. Public works is continuing to cross train in their lab department, and they are still waiting on the top for the aqua duct. Additionally, the 3 trucks that were ordered from Ford in 2021 have still not been ordered and instead they will be going through Chevy, more details will be available at a later meeting.

POLICE

Police Chief Robert Smith announced that there is a new K9 vehicle ordered that should arrive within the month. The written test for new candidates was on the 12th of August, there are ten interviews set for October 2nd that are all new people and they also have two officers on the lateral list. Officer Ziemba resigned, which puts the PD at six officers to run a 24-hour department. Schools officially started up again and there have so far been no issues.

ADMINISTRATION

City Administrator Alyssa Seguss informed the council that the EDC is preparing to interview candidates for the marketing internship through NIU. There were 17 applicants and they picked five to move forward with interviews. She also explained that she is working with Taco Bell on final engineering plans, and they are still working with IDOT about purchasing the right of way. There was a façade grant application from the Warehouse on Park that will be on the agenda at a later meeting and there is one more building downtown preparing to submit an application as well.

MAYOR

Mayor Brust announced that there is going to be a shred event in the parking lot of City Hall on August 26th with Senator Chesney.

Motion to adjourn the meeting of the City Council was made by Alderman Wesner, seconded by Alderman Roca. Voice vote was taken, all voted yes. Motion was carried. Meeting adjourned at 7:55pm.

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